Her Convenient Millionaire by Gail Dayton Page A

was the favorite daughter, the pride and joy. Then again, maybe Tug thought he could count on Juliana not to refuse. “You’re not going through with it, are you?”
    â€œI think I am. If he wants to. It’s Kurt Collier, Sherry. At the very least, I want the chance to be engaged to himfor a little while, to have a gorgeous man like him paying attention to me. If he pays attention to me.”
    And there was the difference between the daughters. Juliana got a marriage arranged with handsome, debonair Kurt Collier. Sherry got a marriage arranged with fish-lipped, frightening Vernon the Geek.
    â€œYou be careful, Julie.” She used the old pet name. “Don’t get in over your head.”
    A breathy laugh came over the phone. “It may be too late for that. I mean, me? With a man like that? How can I not get in over my head? I’ll just have to keep telling myself ‘It’s just business, it’s not real,’ and keep paddling as fast as I can. What else can I do?”
    â€œDon’t let Tug and Bebe push you into anything. You can come stay with me if you need to.”
    â€œThanks, Sher, but I don’t think it’s necessary.”
    â€œAre the parents the same?”
    â€œTug was pretty mad when you ran away.”
    She didn’t exactly run away, but Sherry didn’t see any reason to burden Juliana with the truth. Not yet, anyway. Maybe later, if the situation changed. “Has he calmed down, yet?”
    Juliana hesitated before speaking. “Not really. He’s still mad. I heard him yelling at somebody on the phone about you earlier. He said he knew where you were. That’s why I came in to look for your phone number. Are you sure you’re okay? Where are you staying?”
    â€œWith a very nice elderly lady. I’m helping to take care of her. And I’m fine. Honestly.”
    â€œStay that way. Call me and let me know how you are. You’re the only sister I’ve got, you know.”
    â€œI know. You be careful, Juliana. Hear me?”
    â€œYou be careful, too. Tug sounded awful mad. Scary.”
    â€œI will. Promise.” Sherry carried the phone back to theliving room and set it gently in the base, glancing to see if Clara was still asleep, hoping she was.
    The news that her father knew where to find her unnerved Sherry. No, it flat-out frightened her. Tug must have gone off some deep end. Locking her out of the house was extreme behavior, but what Juliana had described seemed to go further.
    What if Tug came up to Clara’s looking for Sherry? When he was in a temper, he had a lot in common with a bull in a china shop. He’d knock Clara over without even thinking about it. Frail as she was, any fall could break a hip. Plus she had that bad heart. A severe fright could be fatal. Though Clara didn’t seem to fear much of anything, from what Sherry could tell. She’d be more likely to become so angry she’d have a heart attack. Sherry didn’t much like the idea either way.
    She needed a way to convince Tug to leave her alone. She could move out, keep him from Clara that way, but without transportation or any way to pay for an apartment, she had nowhere to go and no way to get there. If only she could buy some time.
    In a few more months—three months and sixteen days, to be exact—she would turn twenty-five and gain control of the trust fund her mother had left her. Then she would have plenty of money to do whatever she wanted. But with Tug on the rampage, she didn’t know if she could wait it out.
    She had never seen him so out of control. Then again, Tug had never seemed to be under this much stress before. The arguments between Tug and her stepmother, Bebe, had always been a constant, but the tone had become much more strident, more angry over the past few months. Sherry had figured out the reason when she’d started answering phone calls from creditors dunning for payment.
    Somehow